Gov. Doug Ducey appointed Regent Fred DuVal to an eight-year term on the Arizona Board of Regents in November 2018.  Regent DuVal previously served on the board from 2006 to 2012 when he was appointed by Gov. Janet Napolitano. He is the first regent appointed by a governor of both parties.

Regent DuVal has served at the highest levels of government, including as the White House deputy assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs from 1997 to 2000. He worked in Washington, D.C. as deputy chief of protocol of the United States and deputy assistant secretary of state in the 1990s. Earlier in his career, he served in Arizona as a senior staff assistant to Gov. Bruce Babbitt. Regent DuVal ran as the 2014 Democratic nominee for governor of Arizona and is currently president of DuVal and Associates, Chairman of the Board of Excelsior Mining, a publicly traded copper company, and serves on the board of Drive Time Auto Group.

Regent DuVal was the founder of the Institute for Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona. During his second term on the board, Regent DuVal envisioned the Arizona Teachers Academy, which offers students covered tuition and fees for their program of study if they agree to teach in Arizona public schools. He founded the Regents' Research and Community Grants, which pair Arizona's public university researchers with government agencies and community organizations to address longstanding challenges in Arizona. He also led the board's AZ Healthy Tomorrow initiative designed to address the critical health care workforce shortage in Arizona, including creating a new medical school at the Arizona State University.

During his former term, Regent DuVal prioritized financial aid reform, and led an effort to redesign a state funding model for public higher education based on performance outcomes and graduation rates. He chaired the Lumina Foundation funded initiative, Getting AHEAD, which forged a collaborative relationship with the community colleges, defining new degree pathways statewide called AZTransfer.com. Regent DuVal also served on the "Compete to Complete" steering committee of the National Governors Association.